Not Reported To Bawaslu, Lawsuit For Administrative Violations Of The Loss Of Objects Election

Abdul Chair Ramadhan, constitutional law expert (doc. Constitutional Court).

JAKARTA Constitutional law expert, Abdul Chair Ramadhan, considers that the lawsuit against the alleged election administrative violation reported by the pair Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD to the Constitutional Court (MK) has lost their object.

The problem is, there must be reports of alleged election administrative violations submitted to the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) in accordance with Article 12 of Bawaslu Regulation Number 8 of 2022 before the KPU determines the results of the votes acquired by the Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidate Pairs. If not, it will have legal consequences.

"The two different conditions have legal consequences, as stipulated in Article 12 of Bawaslu Regulation Number 8 of 2022. If there is a request to the Constitutional Court as long as there is a report of alleged election administrative violations to Bawaslu, Bawaslu must stop the report and submit it to the Constitutional Court in the PHPU trial."

"On the other hand, if there is no request to the Constitutional Court, Bawaslu will examine, review, and decide the report," said Abdul in a written statement, Friday, March 29, 2024.

He stated that neither the presidential and vice-presidential candidates 01 nor 03 had previously submitted reports of alleged election administrative violations to Bawaslu. Therefore, the alleged administrative violation of the election being sued to the Constitutional Court has lost its object.

"In the a quo case, the two applicants apparently did not submit reports of alleged election administrative violations to Bawaslu. This has an impact that allegations of election administrative violations are considered never to exist. Allegations of election administrative violations have lost their objects even though there is a PHPU-Pres application to the Constitutional Court, but there are no reports of alleged administrative violations to Bawaslu," he said.

"It would be different if the applicant did not apply for PHPU-Pres, but brought the case to Bawaslu. In this case, Bawaslu based on its competence can recommend the cancellation of the Candidate Pair for President and Vice President on the basis of the Bawaslu decision regarding administrative violations of the election by TSM to the KPU. The KPU will decide about the disqualification," said Abdul.

In addition, the General Chairperson of the Postgraduate Doctors Association for Indonesian Law also emphasized that the Constitutional Court is not authorized to try administrative violations of elections that use a qualitative approach. You see, the Constitutional Court only has the authority to handle vote counting with a quantitative approach.

"The two applicants' petitums, namely candidate pair number 1 and 3, are related to allegations of violations of election administration, especially in a structured, Systematic and Massive manner (TSM)."

"However, the argument must have quality and then be in response to the vote acquisition as determined by the General Elections Commission (KPU)."

"In this case, the determination is a causality relationship (causality). Stopping here, it is necessary to emphasize that violations of election administration and including those that occur in a TSM manner are absolutely the authority of Bawaslu," said Abdul.